I think that Jones has just figured out the system and realizes that this is the only way that he is going to get paid the amount of money that he feels he deserves to headline what will certainly be a sold out event with a ton of pay-per-view buys.
What is really silly about this whole thing is that Jones is one of the few people on the UFC roster that can say whatever he wants and Dana White and co are not going to strike back. Recently after defending his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic and winning in a very one-sided event, Jones talked to Joe Rogan in the octagon and to the press later and basically told them that he is not at all interested in fighting interim champion Tom Aspinall. While Jones hasn't said too much along the lines of him not believing that Aspinall is a good opponent or not talented, he certainly seems to be using this fight as a bargaining chip for more money, even though he hasn't said that is the case.
There are people such as Chael Sonnen that have been calling out Jones over this refusal to fight the interim champion to unify the belts, but even though I like Sonnen he is definitely compelled to say whatever Dana White tells him to.
Jones has said he wants a "superfight" with Alex Pereira, who is the current and dominant light-heavyweight champion. The world would really like to see this fight as well but there are plenty of reasons aside from money why it shouldn't. The main thing is that Pereira went UP in weight to even qualify to be in the light heavyweight division and there are really good reasons to believe that if he went up another 10 lbs or whatever it is, that he would lost a lot of the speed that has made him perfect at light heavyweight.
You can't really tell by looking at them in the ring because Pereira looks like such a chiseled beast, but he if he is training hard and at what we refer to as his "natural fighting weigh" he is actually a middleweight that beefed up to get to light heavyweight. Jones worked for years to make it to heavyweight because while those of us that sit at home and eat Doritos and drink beer think that gaining 10 lbs is a piece of cake, professional fighters would really rather be in a situation where they have to LOSE weight. Therefore, if Jones demanded that Pereira move up to heavyweight for them to face one another, this would be a loaded fight anyway. Now if Jones was willing to drop weight to go to LH, things could get very interesting.
Dana White has squashed any attempts from Jones, Pereira, and the media at trying to make this fight a thing. He is uninterested in it and if the two guys really want to make it happen, they are going to have to work against Dana to make that happen.
We need to look at WHY White doesn't want this to happen and I suspect that is because he wants all the weight categories to be exciting and if we have all the top guys gravitating to other weight classes because of supposed superfights, then the public loses interest in the other weight classes. It kind of makes sense to me from a business point of view because UFC really wants to have sold out pay per views every single month and you simply cannot do that if everyone is moving to one particular weight class.
In the meantime I don't really think that Jones is afraid of Aspinall but I suppose that could be the case. The last thing that Jones wants to have happen is for him to be forced to retire on a down note. Dude is closing in on 40 years old and very few fighters have ever remained relevant in their later years. Jones is different though. He has accumulated enough wealth that he likely doesn't have to take any fights other than the ones he dictates... and Dana White likely knows this.
They'll work something out or Jones will walk away. And I really don't think the UFC wants to see that happen.